Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/117

 Though much has been written on the Hussite movement, no one not even Palacký himself in any other passage had defined that movement so clearly and so truly as Palacký has here.

Before leaving Palacký’s works, I should mention that he edited several very valuable collections of documents relating to ancient Bohemian history.

The brilliant example of Palacký naturally and fortunately obtained for him numerous and able successors. Though as one who has himself attempted to write on the history of Bohemia, I make this statement with some diffidence, I think that it is in the field of historiography that the Bohemian writers of the period of revival had achieved the greatest success. I shall be able to give but a slight sketch of these writers, and shall mention first those that have already departed, thus diverging slightly from the chronological order; for the Nestor of Bohemian historiography, and one of the greatest of Bohemian historians, Professor Tomek, is fortunately still alive and still actively occupied with his favourite studies.

Dr. Anton Gindely, born in 1829, has left numerous valuable historical works, some of which are written in German, others in Bohemian. He has principally occupied himself with the last years of Bohemian independence. His works on the history of the Letter of Majesty, on Rudolph II and his times, his history of the counter-reformation in Bohemia—which unfortunately remained unfinished—have thrown an immense amount of light on the history of Bohemia during the last years of independence. The immense influence of Christian of Anhalt on the affairs of Bohemia, his endeavours to enlist against the House of Habsburg the